84
winter
|
spring
TOPPING THE LIST
I
n 2011,
Forbes Magazine
ranked Zimbabwean leader Robert
Mugabe the number-one dictator in the world. Born February
21, 1924, Mugabe was a frequent political prisoner in the 1960s and
’70s during the Rhodesian Bush War. After the war and Rhodesia
became Zimbabwe, Mugabe became its leader and, at the time was
hailed a hero. The 91-year-old leader has been president or prime
minister since 1980.
However, since 1998, Mugabe has expropriated thousands
of white-owned farms, printed hundreds of thousands of
Zimbabwean dollars causing hyperinflation, and
harassed and intimidated political opponents of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Their economic downfall has been accompanied by
oil and food shortages. Since the expropriation of
white-owned farms, agriculture production has
plummeted. Zimbabwe was once the “bread
basket” of Southern Africa. One woman at a
safari lodge said food shortages were so bad
that her family had to boil poisoned fruit for
three days straight before they could eat it.
On September 15, 2008, a power
sharing agreement was brokered by
then South African president Thabo Mbeki. Under the deal Mugabe
remains president, while Morgan Tsvangirai was prime minister, a post
he held through 2013. Tsvangirai is still president of the MDC, which
controls the police, while Mugabe still controls the army.
Even though life has slightly improved, reports of Mugabe’s
goons have tried forcing political opposition into granting amnesty
for past crimes by abducting, detaining, and torturing
the opposition.
POACHED OUT
H
wange National Park, located in western
Zimbabwe, was a virtual ghost town in terms
of wildlife. Some late season rains had kept the pans
full of water and the savannah lush, but even typical
plains game animals such as impala, steenbok, zebra, and
kudu were eerily scarce.
This was my 13th trip to Africa, and I’ve never seen
a south or east African country so void of plains game — significant
prey items for lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and painted dogs
were also missing, but part of the problem is the animals were easily
spooked and stay concealed in the bush.
Poaching has always been a horrific problem in Africa; the
FAR
FLUNG
TRAVEL
